Okay, so today I decided to tackle this “athlete crossword” thing. I’d seen them floating around online, and frankly, I thought, “How hard could it be?” Turns out, harder than I expected, but also pretty fun!
First, I googled “athlete crossword” to get a feel for what I was dealing with. I saw a bunch of different variations – some were just lists of athletes’ names, others had clues related to their sport or achievements. I decided to go with the clue-based kind. More challenging, you know?
My Clumsy Process
- Brainstorming: I started by listing out some famous athletes I knew. I got stuck after, like, five. My sports knowledge isn’t as vast as I thought.
- Finding Clues: This was the tough part. I had to find clues that weren’t too obvious, but also weren’t impossible. I spent a good chunk of time on sports websites and Wikipedia, looking up random facts.
- Fitting it Together: Creating the crossword, that I realize the real pain. I tried to make it all connect, but some names were just too long, others too short. I ended up starting from scratch a few times.
- Testing: I gave my crossword to my friend to try. She pointed out some clues that were way too vague, and I had to rework them.
I realized the first diffculty is that there’re lots of blanks, and some are overlaping, some are not. I have to try to arrange them with the answers crossing each other, that’s the most difficult and interesting part.
After a few hours of messing around, I finally had something that resembled a decent crossword. It wasn’t perfect, but hey, I actually did it! It was a good mental workout, and I learned some new things about some athletes I’d never even heard of. So, yeah, I’d say it was a worthwhile little project. Would I do it again? Maybe. If I’m feeling particularly ambitious. Or bored. Or both.
